Informations : CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) is being prepared for a launch currently set to take place late next year (2016). CYGNSS will be used to better predict hurricanes and, in so doing, help to prevent tragedies like Hurricane Katrina. With the satellite currently undergoing construction in Texas, SpaceFlight Insider spoke with the company selected to launch CYGNSS about what is required to get the eight microsatellites aloft.

An Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket will use its distinct air-delivery method to payloads to orbit. Whereas most launch vehicles lift off from the active pads at Cape Canaveral, the Pegasus XL will not. It will launch after being dropped from a jet aircraft. Something that has not occurred from Cape Canaveral since the flight of NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft on April 24, 2003.